Hello everyone, hope you all are having a pain free day. I have just been reading some posts regarding injections and would like to share my rather frustrating experiences with my GP, and possibly get some input on what I should do or expect on my upcoming pain management appointment.
First let me start by telling you that I am at the point with my doctor where I refuse to see him again. His demeaner has been so poor the last few times that I have been in his office I literally get sick to my stomach when I have to go in for an appointment. I had to wait three and a half hours one morning in his waiting room, and I was his first appointment! Every time I have been in to see him he blows me off on my pain issues. Three months of muscle relaxers and pain pills followed by 12 sessions of physical therapy that made matters worse. Two more months to see an orthopedic specialist, followed by another two months to get a second opinion, then another month to get into him just to let him read the results of another doctor. Every time I would see him, I kept telling him the pain meds weren't working well, so it became the lets try this PT then talk, then let's see the specialist then talk. He put me on a anti inflammatory last fall, which I could not tolerate (didn't help, made me sick to my stomach and upped my blood pressure) . I was given Celebrex by one of the orthopedic doctors, which was elevating my blood pressure, so I stopped in to my GP's office to let them know what was happening, they called me 5 hours later and made an appointment for two weeks later, said the doctor would talk about the blood pressure then, the next day I broke out in hives and my face swelled to nearly twice it's size. I discontinued use of it, and finally after five days, my doctor calls in a script for the same thing he gave me last fall only a stronger dosage. I took it three times, because I was in some serious pain those days, and it upped my blood pressure every time. I took one the morning of my last doctors appointment and my blood pressure shot up to 189 over 100, and they let me walk out of the office without saying a word about it! They didn't even have it in my chart that they prescribed it for me ! I became very animated and started listing all of these problems that I have had and how they keep throwing the same crap at me and expecting different results.
Sorry to ramble, but this has been eating at me all week and I am at my wits end. You see, I don't feel that they are looking in the right area for the main cause of my pain. Most of my pain is to the left of my spine and follows one of my ribs. I have some friends that are in the medical field and they gave me some suggestions. I reviewed all of my mri's and x-rays, as well as reports from two seperate orthopedic doctors, and not one looked at my rib cage. I could be completely wrong, but sometimes, you have to trust your gut instincts, specialists only look at what they are told to look for by the referring physician. I called my insurance company and they agreed. Called my GP and explained to the nurse that I wanted an mri of my rib area and if he refused, I had the right to file a complaint with my insurance company. He refused. So here I sit, a week from going to pain clinic, looking for a new doctor, and wanting to refuse any type of injection because #1, I don't really know what is going on inside of there. #2. my GP hit me with an injection at his office back in December and I barely made it to my truck, and left me in bed the next day (real hard on the career missing work, especially in Michigan's economy). #3, if I have to follow up with my GP, I am NOT going back.
Once again, sorry for the rambling, I just feel like I've hit another brick wall, and I am just trying to keep myself going and support my family. Any input would be appreciated on what should I do or say or expect from the pain clinic. I think I should let them know what I have been through with my doctor, or will this put up the flag with them also? I don't want to come off as being untrusting of doctors, but this is the first real medical issue I have had in my life, and quite frankly it's been nothing but one big runaround, and a big loss of wages and medical bills. I'm going broke, I can do less and less at work , home and church all the time, and I still don't have a clear cut answer as to why.
Thank's for any replies in advance,
Steve

First, let me tell you how sorry I am, that you are going through all of this and that you don't have a Dr. that you feel comfortable with. That happens a lot, I am afraid, but when you find the one that you can talk to and who is on your side...keep him! I hope that you will find your perfect Dr. at the pain center.

I have to say, that you will probably have to have the injections, as many Drs. won't go by the results of what other Drs. have done, not to mention that most insurances wont do other treatmetns, until you have first done the injections. I will encourage you though, that the injections that you had at your GP's office, may not have been done quite as well as those done at a pain center. The pain center Drs. do these injections all day long and many of them are anesthesiologist and really know what they are doing. Also, I don't know if your GP did this, but usually at the pain center, you are able to get meds. to help you either really calm down or even make you sedated.

As for what you should tell your new Dr., it is my opinion that it would not be terrible for you to give the new Dr. an idea of what you were not getting from you GP and that you are looking for in a new Dr. However, you don't want to go in bad mouthing your old Dr. You don't want your new Dr. to get the wrong impression about you and think that you will bad mouth him as well. You do want to go into this new relationship, building a good trusting relationship, so I think I would focus more of my conversation on what he can do for you, rather than what your last Dr. did in the past.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that you never have to be concerned about comming here to vent. We have all been there and understand the need that we may have. Please let us know how things go with your new Dr.

Lorie, thank's for your reply. I agree with you 100% when it comes to bad mouthing my old doctor to a new one. I have spent my entire career in the service industry (twenty years in automotive, four years in durable medical) so I put myself in these shoes literally every day of my working life, being expected to make up for the shortcomings of other medical supply companies. I just want to be able to explain my case without being pre-judged as a complainer, I just need some to REALLY listen to what's going on and proceed forward from there. I have multiple level spine issues, cervical, thoracic and lumbar. Surgeons are more than happy to start fusing my cervical and lumbar regions, but they will not touch my lumbar, which is where the terrible pain is, as I stated before, mainly to the left of my spine in the rib area.
I forgot to add some other concerns, although not related to my problem, my father suffered from pain and breathing problems for years, they only x-rayed him and told him that he had emphazema scarring on his lower left lung that kept getting larger. By the time he was sent to a specialist who finally listened to him, it was too late. He actually had a cancerous tumor growing behind his lung and died a horrible death at 45. I am 40, and relatively in good health other than this pain and hypertension, don't drink or smoke. My only sibling, a brother had quadrouple bypass at 44 and is out on disability because he also has back and circulation problems. I don't want to go down the same road, so I want to get this thin nipped in the bud if possible. I have a good job, (although stressful) a great family, and a cute little home on a beautiful piece of land. I just want to get back to my old self and move on from this nightmare.
Thank's for taking the time to listen and respond.
Hugs,
Steve

Steve,
I totally understand what you are experiencing. I went thru the same thing with my neck problems. I had to keep changing Dr. and getting injections all over again by the new Drs. etc. It seemed like NO ONE knew what the heck they were doing. It went on for 5 yrs. of hell. I finally went to a PHYSIATRIST, who did a bunch more things, and then referred me to a spinal surgeon, who ended up doing my neck fusion. I swear I thought i was going to have a nervous breakdown (whatever THAT is) over these Drs. This time around with my back issue, I am not changing Drs. because it just prolongs everything and drives me crazy. I am convinced that any Dr. would probably drive me nuts, since I have such a distrust for them. oy... HANG IN THERE, STEVE!

Steve, I can understand after what you went through with your dad, how you want to make sure you find a Dr. that will listen to you. I went through this with my 2 daughters. My youngest one past away, when she was 7 years old...we saw numerous Dr. who just wanted to send her home with no real care, except to come back to the ER if she began to have problems. We did not stop looking for a good Dr. until we found the one who refused to give up on her or her care. Then, when my oldest daughter began to have serious problem as a teen ager, her pediatritian was ready to give up on her, stating that it was probably stress and maybe depression. I remember the day that I asked to speak with him and told him to remember what my youngest one went through and told him that I was not ready to give up on my oldest one and Ineeded to know that he wasn't going to stop trying to help her. He never gave up on my daughter, fron that day on. I think it would do you good to tell your new Dr. exactly what you went through with your dad, and I would bet that he would give you all the time and attention that you need.

SKZ, Lorie, thank you both for your responses, and Lorie, I am so sorry for your loss. My only nephew (my brothers oldest child) was diagnosed with Lukemia at the age of one. I didn't go into that rant on my other posts, but he was dismissed by a doctor who thought his parents were overprotective even though he was constantly on antibiotics from the time he was two months old and was physically yellow/orange in color (doctor told them that they were feeding him too many carrots and squash). He just cried and cried all of the time. Thank God for an attending doctor in ER who had the wits to know what was going on, he didn't even wait for bloodwork, had the boy immediately air-lifted to U of M where he spent the next year and a half of his life. I am happy to report that he is a healthy typical 15 year old young man today, and next to my own kids, he is one of biggest joys of my life.
Thank's for being there for me.
Steve